Uncomprehendable Love
by Skyla Winters
Summary: I was always the oddball of the clan but so were my brothers. If there was one thing we had in common, it would be our moral: If I have to soil my hands to protect what I love, then so be it.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

_-Flashback-_

Minato, Kakashi, and Rin sat by the three poles in the third training field as they waited for their last teammate to arrive. For the past three hours.

Suddenly a crash from the corner of the training field informed them of the arrival of their late teammate as the Uchiha stopped to a halt in front of them, panting very heavily. The teen's hair was an absolute mess but he was radiating a warm glow of happiness even more so than usual.

"What are your excuses this time Obito?" Minato asked half out of habit and half out of genuine curiosity as to why his student looked like he was about to explode from a sugar rush.

The goggled teen beamed up at the jounin eager to reply, "I'm gonna have another sibling! My mom just told me before I left which is why I was late." he said as he cheekily grinned at his teacher.

Even though it didn't explain why the teen was late by three hours the blonde man let it go.

"Congratulations, Obito. Give your parents my regards too." Minato smiled back and ruffled Obito's hair in affection which the teen playfully swatted away.

"Thanks Minato-sensei."

Then their attention was shifted to the silver-haired teen as he jumped down from his place on the logs.

Kakashi scoffed, "I surely hope that this sister of yours wouldn't grow up to be as slow you Obito because Konoha doesn't need another slacker in their forces to pull them back. Maybe if your parents are lucky, she'll turn out better to be as fast as your brother and surpass you." Kakashi dryly commented to purposely piss off the Uchiha. Obito fell for it.

"Hey, take that back!" a few seconds later he added, "...Even if it's true that Shisui's faster than me." the teen mumbled the last part almost as an after thought.

The silver-haired chuunin snorted in amusement causing the other boy to shout in protest and Rin to play peacemaker.

[Seven months later]

The Third Shinobi War has been going on for a while now but chuunins weren't needed in the front lines yet so Team Minato sat utterly bored as they watched the border of Konoha for any invading Iwa ninjas.

They haven't sighted an Iwa nin since the start of the guard post and nothing exciting has happened other than beating up thugs who were impersonating as Iwa nins. Idiots.

The silence stretched on as they continue to watch the horizon for anything suspicious.

Rin was the first one to break the silence.

"So Obito... how's your mother? Any news of the baby?" she had a thing for babies because she was an only child. There was also the fact that the hospitals were letting her assist on much more difficult operations as the war stretched on so there was a slight chance that she might possibly aid during the delivery of her teammate's parents' baby.

The said teen perked up when his crush addressed him before his rival, aka her crush, aka for those of who don't know: Kakashi.

"Oh, well, they were talking about different names to give the baby since the delivery is in about two months..." Obito slowly began.

"Names?"

"Yeah, if the baby was a boy then my parents are gonna name him Riku and if the baby was a girl..."

He paused and his cheek dusted into a light shade of pink which spiked the curiosity both Rin and Kakashi, who wasn't really paying attention until he saw the look on his teammates face.

"What was the name that your family chose if she was a girl?" Rin pressed.

"U-uh, well..." the Uchiha stammered, "If she was a girl her name would be, um, Rin... my parents likes the sound of it." Obito blushed further.

The brunette girl smiled at the thought of sharing the same name with another being while the white-haired shinobi just scoffed at the thought of it.

[After delivery]

Obito's death wasn't announced to his family until after the delivery since they feared that telling the pregnant mother would affect the baby during the critical moments of birth. Several weeks after the announcement of their fellow teammate's death did Team Minato, or what was left of it, visit Obito's family out of respect.

Kakashi didn't want to visit his teammate's family. In fact, if he had the choice, he would bolt out of the compound if it weren't for Minato-sensei's (now the fourth hokage's) intense gaze he was under. It also didn't help that most of the Uchihas were glaring at him, or glaring at the eye that Obito gave him to be exact.

The goggled teen's voice rang through his head for the fifteenth time that day.

_"I don't care what the village thinks of you, Kakashi. To me, you're a really great jounin..._

Kakashi tensed. Obito's voice has haunted him ever since the tragic mission. He forced his muscle to relax as Minato-sensei knocked on the door.

The door creaked open to reveal a very young Shisui, the younger brother of Obito. The protegé let them in and guided the three into the living room where the mother was cradling a bundle of blankets.

"Hello Hokage-sama, Kakashi-kun, and Rin-chan." the older woman greeted. The mother looked torn between mourning for her son and taking care of her children, the dark circle under her eyes was enough evidence.

"Good afternoon Uchiha-san and Shisui-kun. You can call me Minato instead... Hokage makes me feel old, you know?" Minato lightheartedly joked.

The tense atmosphere around them seemed to loosen up a bit as Obito's mother gave them a genuine smile. To her left sat the younger Uchiha who observed them carefully without letting any emotions escape his face. That mask, however, fell just a tiny bit whenever he glanced at the baby in his mother's arms when the young protegé thought that the three guests weren't watching.

"Ah, Rin-chan! I forgot to thank you for helping during the delivery. Thank you so much. Do you want to hold the baby?" the mother asked.

The brunette immediately composed herself when she was addressed, "You're welcome, Uchiha-san. It was a pleasure to be able to assist in something so important and I absolutely would love to hold the baby." Rin took the baby into her arms and smiled faintly, a rare act to see since Obito's death.

"May I hold the child too?" Minato asked after a while and the raven haired woman nodded.

Rin passed the baby to her teacher and the baby gurgled in delight as the young man let the infant curl its tiny fingers around his index finger causing him to grin.

"You seem good at handling babies, Minato-san." the mother mused out loud.

The said man blink in surprise, "T-thank you. That's good to hear."

"Oh, is Kushina expecting a baby too? Oops, I'm sorry, that was a very personal question. Me and my mouth." Uchiha-san lightly laughed as she covered her mouth with one hand.

"Yes she is. In nine months, around October the doctors said." Minato scratched the back of his head looking a little flustered but proud nonetheless.

His two students turn to face him with wide eyes, "Sensei! You didn't tell us!" Rin exclaimed.

Kakashi didn't say anything but his face told otherwise.

"I was going to tell you guys later today!" the young Hokage gave them a cheeky grin, "But I guess the cat's out of the bag now."

"Kakashi would you like to hold too?" Uchiha-san asked. He looked up at his teacher for confirmation and Minato nodded.

Slowly reaching out, Kakashi carefully but securely held the small infant in his arms and cradled it.

"So... what did you name the child?" the blonde man asked.

The mother's warm gaze went to the baby in the silver-haired jounin's arms and she smiled, "Well actually, Obito was the one who named the baby... He insisted on naming her Rin and since the baby is a girl her name's officially Rin now."

Three pairs of eyes widen and Uchiha-san continued, "And since Rin-chan there was a big help at the hospital I thought, 'Why not?' so the name stuck. It's a really beautiful name." the medic nin blushed at the compliment.

The masked teen looked down at the baby in his arms again. Her onyx eyes stared back at him and a small arm reached out from the blankets to touch his covered eye. Kakashi visibly flinch at the touch but the baby Rin giggled.

"She likes you..." the mother observed and gave a smile to both of them.

Obito's voice rang through his head again.

"_Kakashi... take care of Rin."_

Kakashi gave a small smile down at the little infant in his arms, 'I will Obito. I will take care of them.'

Rin P.O.V. (Uchiha Rin)

When I was four I vaguely remember my parents ordering Shisui to begin training me for my future career as a kunoichi. Shisui was ten at the time and we would always go to an open clearing in the compound to do shuriken practices and the basics of taijutsu.

Surprisingly my parents weren't disappointed when they found out that I wasn't a protegé like my brother. I later learned the story that night of my deceased brother, Obito, from Shisui. Apparently he was the dead last of his grade.

But whenever I was feeling down, like when my parents didn't have the time to train with me because they had "important" clan meetings to attend to, my brother would always cheer me up by carrying me around on his back while he using his favorite technique, the shunshin no jutsu.

"Don't be so down Rin-rin!" Shisui told me and I made a face.

"Stop calling me Rin-rin," I whined, "Everyone in the compound started calling me by that name. Even Sasuke started using it!"

Sasuke was a cousin from my mother's side since his mother is the younger sister of my mother. He was a year younger than me but we treated each other as equals. And since our brothers would always pair up to go do something together, we kept each other's company for the most part.

And yes, Shisui was the one came up with that ridiculous nickname after finding it amusing to see the face I made whenever he said it. Apparently other people found it funny too because they began using it too. Well, only those who weren't really strict or stern (as in most of the clan members) and people who knew me personally would call me by that name. There was never a day that passed by without someone referring to me as "Rin-rin".

My favorite activity was to just watch Shisui and my older cousin, Itachi, do a friendly spar at a quiet training ground near the Naka River with Sasuke. Both of us would cheer for our respective brothers as they fought even though everyone knew Itachi would end up to be the victorious one every time.

As the years quickly pass, the opportunity for us to spend time together lessen and even a child like me, now nine years old, could feel the safe haven around me slowly crumble as tension slowly set in throughout the clan.

Whenever I tried to I bring up that topic with my brother, he would reassure me that nothing was going on and that the clan just was facing some financial issues.

But behind his sloppy grins and sheepish smiles, I knew deep inside that he was lying to me.

Kakashi P.O.V.

So much has happened in a year.

Minato-sensei sacrificed his life for the village during the Kyuubi attack but that didn't stop Rin and I from visiting the Uchiha compound every once in a while. Even if it meant Rin had to drag me there.

But now that Rin's name was also engraved in the memorial stone, I didn't visit as often anymore. The guilt of failing Obito's final request made me feel sick to the stomach and I, now retired from anbu, just wanted to forget about the past. Hanging around his dead friend's sister was just a constant reminder of my worst nightmare and besides, she was in safe hands. The nine year old was guarded by her protective brother and she had clan mates to look after her. The Uchiha clan didn't like me anyways so I didn't even bother anymore.

That changed when I heard that Shisui committed suicide.

The image of Rin sitting in the compound all alone made me worried a bit that I would secretly check on her twice a day; sometimes even more, by concealing myself in a nearby tree.

There was one day however, when the Third gave all the jounins and anbus in Konoha a mission out of the village which gave me an uneasy feeling like something bad was going to happen. And being the kind of shinobi who never ignores my gut whenever I felt something, I finished my mission by sundown when I picked up the scent of blood coming from the compound.

Panicking slightly, I picked up my pace and fished a kunai from my pouch while putting my guard up in the process. The place was unusually quiet and as I stepped further into the dark streets there were corpses and blood splattered everywhere. Quickly figuring out what was happening, I dashed towards the house where Rin lived and broke into the house when I couldn't hear any sound from inside.

Obito's parents' bodies lay limp in the hallway and were covered in bright red liquid. Panic settled in me as I saw fresh blood pouring out from under a door. The door to Rin's room to be exact.

Hastily, I kicked open the door to find Rin soaked in her own blood as well. The wound on her looked fresh and I immediately put two fingers over her neck to check for her pulse. It was faint but she was rapidly losing blood so I swiftly picked her up bridal-style and shunshined into the hospital where the nurses took over to treat her.

I just hoped that I didn't completely fail Obito again this time.


	2. Chapter 2

Rin P.O.V.

My name is Uchiha Rin, the younger sister of both Uchiha Shisui and Obito, as you already probably guessed. Just to recap, I share the same name as my brother Obito's teammate. Both my parents were well-respected people; my father being the right-hand man of Uchiha Fugaku-sama, and my mother was Uchiha Mikoto's sister. I never really met Obito-niisan because I was still in my mother's womb when he passed away but Shisui told me he died saving his comrade and always looked up at him. Shisui was already a loyal member of the Uchiha Police Force when he was my age.

But I was nothing special.

I wasn't a politically important person like my father and mother who were both part of the tight inner circle of the clan.

I wasn't a hero who saved a fellow teammate. Nor was I part of the clan's police force.

I wasn't even a genin when _both_ my brothers were already one by the time they were my age.

I was still an Academy student.

I was a sore thumb in the clan.

A disgrace.

A crybaby.

And I was also a nobody.

But Shisui-niisan didn't care. He told me that "a nameless shinobi who protects peace from within its shadow" is a true shinobi.

And I loved him for that.

I was nine years old when I found out that he died.

_-Flashback-_

There was knocking at the door.

I was the only one at home because my parents were at an important clan meeting and there were also no academy classes today.

Usually, the clan only held one meeting per week but these past few days were filled with nothing _but_ clan meetings. That didn't mean that I spent less time with my parents or anything. I was practically invisible to them now. All they cared about now was Shisui and his services. Not that I was jealous or anything but I just wished they spent more time with me... and that was still asking too much from them. They had meetings to attend to and Shisui was always out working while I was not. I was doing nothing. I was being useless. Again.

Talking about Shisui, I haven't seen him all night which was odd because he would always come back home to eat dinner with me to make up for the loss of time he couldn't spend with me.

Remembering the unanswered door, I walked up and opened it only to see that there were several members of the clan's police force with their heads low, bowing down almost at a ninety degree angle.

I frowned. Why were they acting so formal towards me?

"I am terribly sorry to inform you Uchiha-sama but your son, Uchiha Shisui, was found dead near a river after committing suicide."

My heart stopped and when they didn't hear a respond from me they looked up to see that it wasn't my parents they were addressing to, but their nine-year old daughter. Their blood ran cold when they saw the frozen expression on my face.

"W-we are terribly sorry Rin-sama! We didn't know that you were standing there! Please accept our apologies."

My mind went blank again as I tried to register all the information that was thrown at me. 'It must be an early April Fool's joke' I told myself in my mind over and over but when I looked back at the grave looks of the men in front of me, I knew it wasn't another one of those crude prank Shisui occasionally pulled off.

He was gone from this world. And I never got a chance to say goodbye to him. _He_ didn't say goodbye to me.

And when that finally registered in my mind, I just slammed the door in their faces, not caring whether it was rude of me or not. Then, I dragged my heavy body to bed with difficulty and started mourning for my brother's death, letting the secret crybaby side of me take over.

_-End of Flashback-_

For a few days, I locked myself in her room and my parents weren't in good shape either. I was leaning against my door staring off into space when I overheard my parents' conversation in the hallway just right outside of my room.

"There are rumors going on that Itachi killed Shisui and faked his suicide note."

My father's stern voice reached my ears making my eyes widen in horror. Itachi was the one who killed Shisui? Impossible. They were practically like brothers!

"I've heard of it too. Why couldn't we notice? Itachi has acted strange all week. Apparently he did it to obtain the mangekyou sharingan." my mother replied. I've never heard her talk with so much venom in her voice; it felt like I was listening to someone else.

Then a thought came across my mind. _Mangekyou sharingan?_ The term made my eyebrows furrow in confusion.

"I can never forgive that child. Killing our son like that." my father growled.

Then the sound of breaking glass echoed across the hallway as I slapped my hand over my mouth to stop myself from yelping in surprise so that my parents didn't figure out that I was eavesdropping on them. They've been very secretive these past few months and barely talked around me on clan issues.

My other hand was next to me on the floor to support my weight when I felt something wet on it. I looked down at my hand to see that it was covered in warm, red, sticky liquid. Then, I turned my body around and noticed in horror that the fluid-like substance was coming from the other side of the door.

Fear engulfed me as the silence stretched on and I couldn't hear anything from the hallway.

My body shook in terror as I tried to stand on my shaky legs and slowly reached for the doorknob to check that the red liquid wasn't what I thought it was.

The door creaked open and my eyes took in the bloody corpses of my parents and a figure standing above them with the bloody sword responsible for killing my parents. It was none other than my cousin Itachi.

"...Itachi?" I whispered in disbelief. My body grew cold as his cold eyes landed on me. Then I slowly realized the person responsible for slaughtering my family was standing right in front of me.

He pointed his weapon at me and I was inwardly screamed at myself to move but my body stood there frozen in shock. My eyes were already wide with horror as I watched him pulled his sword back and stabbed it right through my body. Excruciating pain blasted from where the katana impaled me and my clothes started to stain in a dark red color. Dark spots danced across my vision before Itachi removed the weapon from my body and let me drop ungracefully to the ground. I felt a puddle of red liquid forming underneath me.

"W-why?" I breathed out. What have I done to receive this kind of punishment? What could I've done? I did cross paths with Itachi a couple of times but it wasn't something that I would've gotten killed for.

My vision was blurred from the amount of blood that I've lost but I willed myself to focus on the figure standing above me.

It was probably just my mind playing games on me from losing so much blood but I saw guilt and sorrow flash across his face before the world around me faded black.

I cracked open my eyes only to be met with the color white in every direction. The bright light above me was hurting my eyes so I had to squint a little before my eyes adjusted accordingly.

Then my ears picked up sounds of beeping to my left and my eyes landed onto a small monitor. Just hearing it gave me a splitting headache so I tried to sit up in order to look around my surroundings but instead I felt pain shoot up my spine and the bandages wrapped around me started to soak in blood. A nearby nurse saw what I was doing and she pushed me back down onto my bed. The lady looked at me worriedly before telling me about the wounds I've sustained.

"You have to be careful! It's a miracle that you're even alive. You were about to die from blood loss and if the wound was any bigger, you wouldn't have survived. A very nice man rushed you into the hospital and saved your life so you should be grateful. Once you heal you can leave the hospital but don't strain yourself or the wound will open again."

I lied back down onto the hospital bed after the nurse left and tried to replay what had happened before I lost my consciousness. I remembered being in my room mourning for my brother. And then blood. And then my parents... My hands covered my face in dread and a small whimper escaped from my lips as I slowly realized that my parents and Shisui, my family, were all dead.

Seeing that no one was around, I started sobbing quietly to myself while being careful not to let the nurses hear or disturb anyone by muffling my noise with my pillow. The last thing I needed was somebody seeing me as a crybaby; a trait that only those who were really close to me, like Shisui, were aware of. I hated it when people saw me weak and vulnerable.

A couple of hours have passed when I finally took notice of the flower in the glass vase next to my bed. It was a white tulip.

The crying stopped as I was temporarily confused for a moment as to why there was a flower next to my bed. I thought of who could have possibly brought me a flower. Wiping the tears off, sat slowly sat back in my bed making sure that I didn't open my wounds again.

My family was gone; I felt a jab through my heart at that thought, so it couldn't be from them. Itachi was also out of the list... Sasuke? No, he wouldn't even go _near_ the Yamanaka Flower Shop just to buy some flower. I sighed in defeat as I couldn't think of anybody else.

What did a white tulip mean again? I silently cursed at myself for not paying attention during the kunoichi flower arranging classes. Who knew that a single flower could aggravate you so much! But deep inside I smiled at the thought of knowing someone out there cared for me. Even if it was just one of the nurses who felt pity on me.

Several weeks later the same nurse who took care of me told me that I was healthy enough to be released, when an anbu person waltzed right into my room.

"The Hokage wishes to speak to you immediately." he, a male judging by his voice and stature, said.

"For what?" I didn't care if I sounded snappy and rude but I was stressed out from being confined in the white room with the, now wilted, mystery of the white tulip hanging above my head. Also for some odd reason nobody shared the hospital room with me and the windows were tightly shut with the blinds on, cutting off sunlight from entering my room. The only person I've seen so far was the same old nurse and if I got lucky I would hear birds outside but it was just usually the annoying, beeping monitor and me in the room. Luckily the anbu person didn't push or scold me.

"He would tell the details in his office. Come."

He escorted me to the Hokage's office but he did it while avoiding the eyes of the public. We walked through empty alleys and went in the other direction whenever there was a person heading towards our direction for some weird reason. I just silently followed behind the anbu and when we finally reached our destination, the man knocked on the door to the office twice.

"Come in." a scruffy old voice said from inside.

The anbu person opened the door and walk in, opening the door for me too. The Hokage was sitting behind his desk, paperwork stacked neatly on both sides of the desk. He nodded towards the anbu and signaled him to leave. Then he turned his gaze back towards me and I fidgeted nervously as he analyzed me like I was some sort of threat.

"Ah, Uchiha Rin... I am terribly sorry to hear about your family members," he began and his gaze softened.

My head lowers, it wasn't like I just forgot about my brother or my parent's death and not to mention my cousin's attempt of murdering me.

"I would like to tell you that your cousin Uchiha Sasuke survived but I'm afraid that the rest of the clan did not."

Silence filled the room. I wasn't aware of that particular news and I could already feel my eyes start to sting at the thought of more dead family members. I pushed back the tears as I felt my inner crybaby instincts kick in.

"There is a person, however, who'd like to take you in as your guardian," my head snaps up immediately and he calls out, "you may enter."

My body swivels around to see a silver-haired, masked shinobi entering the room. My mouth drops in recognition but I quickly snap it shut. He raises one hand in greeting, the other in his pocket.

"Yo."

...

...

Sweatdrops form on the masked man and the Third's face.

The jounin turns to the Hokage, "Is she okay, sir?" he says nervously.

"Hatake Kakashi's my guardian?" I manage croak out after a while.

"Yup." Kakashi's eye crinkled up.

"You've got to be kidding me..." the color drained from my face. Kakashi-san used visited my family out of respect for my long deceased older brother who used to his teammate along with his other teammate Rin. Well, it has been a couple of years since Rin visited; her name was engraved on the memorial stone like Obito-niisan.

"Uhhh," Kakashi scratched the back of his head nervously, "as Obito's friend I think it's my responsibility to take care of his sister."

The Third nodded in agreement, "Rin you are to move into Kakashi's apartment as soon as possible. A few days out of class wouldn't affect you grades from what I've heard from the teachers. One more thing," I raised my eyebrow, "Rin, I would like you to drop your clan name as well as your given name."

"What! Oh, uh, my apologies Hokage-sama but why is it important for me to change my name?" I panicked.

"Itachi tried to kill you and he believes that you are dead. On the other hand, he allowed Sasuke live so it's safer for you to change your identity and start a new life; that way Itachi wouldn't be on your trails trying to finish you off. Only a handful of nurses that were trained to keep this kind of secrecy know about your survival and I have asked them to keep their mouths shut on the matter. Other than that Kakashi, the elderly council, and myself are aware of the situation. You may choose to tell you cousin, Sasuke, if you wish but only if he promises to keep quiet of this matter."

I hesitated a little. I was proud of having the Uchiha name and the name my parents gave me but this was an order from the Hokage for the sake of my safety... I nodded solemnly at him much to my dismay.

"Good! Think of this as a mission. Your new name would be..."

"Tora." Kakashi said. That caught me way off guard, I had to look at the silver-haired man to make sure I heard that correctly. He crinkled his visible eye at me and my stomach dropped. That's the name of the daimyou's wife's cat, as I recalled Shisui complaining about the many D-rank missions he had to do in his genin year. It was definitely not a name that you'd give humans for crying out loud! (Okay, maybe someone in anbu was called by the name Tora but it was just a code name!)

The Hokage agreed much to my horror, "Tora it is," he looked at me, "Rin for now on you will be known as Hatake Tora. I suggest that you also change your appearance and personality to cover up your identity. One more thing... I know that you've awakened your sharingan recently..." I nodded and was bewildered that he even knew, "just promise me not to use it. There's a lot of corrupt shinobis out there who would not think twice about stealing it. But I'm sure Kakashi would take good care of you," he smiled at both of us, "Kakashi already filled out the form for adoption so you're free to go. Just make sure no one sees you on your way or better yet you should put on a henge no jutsu."

I was walking with Kakashi and no one looked in my direction... Fine. I'll be honest. I got a lot of stares but no one would've ever guessed that it was me, Uchiha Rin. That was to be expected because I did a transformation jutsu to change my clothes completely black with a mask that covered the lower half of my face and I changed my hair color to silver. I didn't do anything to my eyes because they were almost the same color as Kakashi's and instead of having my hair loose like usual, I kept it into a high ponytail. Kakashi had inspected me once over before we were outside.

_-Flashback-_

I shrugged, "I've got to look like a Hatake, right? Anyways, do you have any idea what we're going tell the public about my 'mysterious' adoption? It's better if we stick to the same story and since I'm not good at making excuses, you should make one up." It was nice keeping my mind off of... the recent tragedy.

The jounin sighed and scratched the top of his head, "Um... just tell them that you were some long-lost relative of the Hatake clan."

My eyes twitched. I guess he's not good at making good excuses as I am because that excuse was just so cliché... and would probably—no. It would most absolutely; definitely, a hundred-percent make everyone suspicious. Didn't he read the basics of infiltration at the Academy? The textbooks practically bold faced and wrote in big letter to never, ever use that 'long lost relative' cover for anything. It was a death wish.

_-End of Flashback-_

Kakashi stopped in front of a door and I almost bumped into him. I didn't even notice we reached our destination.

"We're here." he said.

The masked man fished out his keys from his pocket and opened the door, gesturing me to come in. I've never really visited his home before so it was my first time seeing it. The place had enough space for a maximum two people with wood flooring, a kitchen, a bathroom, a living room, a bedroom, and a guest's room.

Kakashi led me to the guest's room and told me that it would be my room for now on. I noticed my stuff was already there, which I was grateful for. I couldn't even imagine myself walking through the hallway to my old room knowing that my parents' blood spilled there. The guest's room wasn't all that bad either; it was a bit smaller than my old room but living here was better than living in an empty house where my family once lived in. Talking about family...

"Um, Kakashi-san?"

"Just call me Kakashi."

"Oh, okay. Um, may I tell Sasuke about my new identity? I know it's risky for too many people to know about the secret but I think it'll be better if he knew. I'm sure he's still shocked at what his brother did..." I nervously met his gaze. Kakashi and I haven't talk to each other for years and it felt awkward talking to him now.

The masked jounin ruffled my hair, "You can tell him if you'd like."

I gave him a small smile. Sasuke and I were close to each other when we were little. We used to spend a lot of time together since our parents were at meetings a lot and our older brothers would also be working, but that was before I entered the Academy. Now we only talk to each other when there's no one around, which wasn't that often much to my disappointment.

"May I ask you another favor?" he nodded, "Do you know where I can get silver hair dye and a mask like yours? I don't think I could keep a full transformation all day and it would be better if I can cover my face so people wouldn't recognize my face. I think I'll be out buying some clothing as well because most of mine have the Uchiha crest on it which would blow my cover."

"Sure, it _is_ part of the task that the Hokage gave us."

-A few hours later-

I looked at myself in the mirror and didn't recognize the person staring back at me. The person had silver hair that was in a high ponytail with side bangs to framing her face, a black mask like Kakashi's, black sleeveless turtleneck shirt, hand guards, and black pants. The only part that I recognized were her dark eyes... this was the 'new' me. As for my personality, I haven't thought of that yet.

Tearing my eyes from my reflection, I walked into the living room where Kakashi was reading his orange book. He lazily looked up from his reading but that laziness was swept away in an instance and was replaced with surprise. I took that as a compliment and smiled.

One of the things that Shisui found jealous about me was my ability to read people's expression like second nature. That was probably the only thing I was gifted in, but it was better than nothing.

"Did I do a good job? Well, I'll be heading over to my cousin's place but I'll try to come back by," I checked the clock, "six in the afternoon."

A poof of smoke was heard and my body transformed into a cream-colored cat with green eyes. Kakashi raised his eyebrow in confusion and I rolled my eyes.

"It would be weird for me to go to the compound as 'Tora' when Sasuke doesn't know who 'Tora' is and people would wonder why someone new would knock on his door." I explained. The last thing I want is people to think that I'm a fangirl when I'm not. That would just be plain weird and it would probably get me killed in the process. I shuddered at the thought of being chased by swarms of angry Sasuke-obsessed girls. Shisui had some too and they would always come asking me what were his favorite things like color, hobbies, etc. One of them was even brave enough to ask me to steal his boxers, which I didn't. Obviously.

I gave a quick nod to him and jumped out of the house, via the window, and into the streets on four feline legs.

When I reached the gates to the compound it was taped off-limits but I slipped under it anyways and proceeded to find where Sasuke was. I went to check his house but the front door was locked so I walked around it until I found the window to his bedroom. Using my hind legs, I jumped onto the window ledge and peered inside. Sasuke was on his bed and with a beaten expression on his face. I tapped on the window with my front paw but he didn't even look in my direction.

Frustrated, I meowed at him. Nothing.

I yowled. He kept looking up at the ceiling.

I hissed. His eyes didn't even budge.

When my patience dissipated, I picked the lock with my claws to unlock the window from the outside and slipped in. That seemed to have caught his attention.

"What... a cat?"

I looked at him with a bored look. It wasn't the first time he saw me in cat form once but I don't think he knew it was me...

_-Flashback-_

Today was a day off for Shisui and he was going to help me improve my speed, stamina, and ninjutsu. The glint in his eye was a bit unsettling but he was going to personally teach me so I agreed anyways.

"Okay Rin, I have a little game for you." a grin was plastered on his face and I nodded eagerly.

"The objective of this game is for you to disguise yourself as a cat and walk around Konoha without getting caught by anybody. This exerciser will push you to learn how to emit a constant amount of chakra to keep your transformation on while moving around. You have to keep your transformation on during the game or you'll be disqualified. Itachi and I came up with this game to help you guys with your skills."

I looked at him in confusion, "What do you mean 'you guys'?"

He smirked, "Little Sasuke's also playing but he's going to be the one to hunt you. He doesn't know you're the cat but he'll try to capture you and collect your paw print. You have a fifteen minutes head start before Sasuke starts chasing you and you have to survive for at least three hours without being caught," he straighten his posture and looked down at me like how Father would have when he barked out orders to us, "Uchiha Rin, do you accept this mission?"

"Yes, sir!" I mock saluted back at my brother and he placed his hand on top of my head.

"Good luck!"

I transformed into a sand-colored cat and hightailed out of the house into the streets of Konoha, anxiously looking out for a raven haired boy.

Two hours and forty-five minutes later, I found myself covered in mud and painfully held by the scruff by Sasuke in a weaponry shop ran by a cat lady. He got my paw print and a picture with me (in cat form) to commemorate his first successful attempt in catching a cat. I remembered how Itachi smirked at my misfortune... that sadist.

_-End of flashback-_

Sasuke looked at me with a puzzled expression.

"Geez Sasuke, you don't remember the first cat you caught and took a paw print of? Hey, what's with that face! It's not the first time you've seen talking cats. Nekobaa's cats, Denka and Hina, are also talking cats."

"Who are you?" he asked coldly.

My tail flailed angrily behind me, "Anyways, I have news to deliver to you." I deliberately ignored his question.

"..."

I grinned, well I tried to. It was a hard feat to do as a cat, "Promise that you won't hurt me and I'll promise not to hurt you."

"Hn." The look on his face told me that he didn't trust me. It hurt but I couldn't blame him for being hostile.

"I'm actually someone that you know." I did a hand seal to release the transformation jutsu.

The smoke cleared and I was back to my 'Tora' form. Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

"I don't recognize you. What do you want?"

I loosen my hair and pulled down my mask. Then I did the henge no jutsu again to change my hair to its natural black color. I looked back at the boy.

"Hello Sasuke! Now do you recognize me?"

"Rin?"

"Yup!" I genuinely smiled at him.

"I thought you... died." he paled.

"Oh, I was in the hospital for a few weeks after being stabbed with a katana if that's what you mean." I said sarcastically.

"Then what's with the silver hair and mask?"

I returned to 'Tora' once more but kept the mask off, "That's what I came to tell you today. You see, everyone thinks that I'm dead except for a few people. I have to wear a disguise so that no one would recognize me because _he_ would come back to try to finish the job," I avoided mentioning Itachi's name, "Do you know Hatake Kakashi?"

"The guy that visited your family a couple of times?" I slightly tensed at the word 'family'.

"Yeah... he adopted me. The Hokage said that I should change my name and appearance too. I'm known as Hatake Tora now," I crinkled my nose a bit at my new name.

"Isn't Tora like name you give to pets?" he smirked a bit. He looked better with that expression and the void face he had not too long ago.

Mission: make-Sasuke-not-look-like-a-living-zombie completed.

"Hey! I didn't choose that name. I don't like it at all..."

"It suits you."

I looked at him, "Really?"

"Yeah, for someone who transforms into a cat a lot."

I glared playfully at him, "Oi, Sasuke. Not nice. Anyways, just don't tell anyone else, okay? I'll come visit you a couple of times, but now I need to really go." A poof was heard and I was back in a form of a light brown-colored cat.

He opened the window for me and I jumped out. I gave a slight wave with my tail in goodbye before running out of the compound and into the streets of Konoha. Changing back to my human form when no one was looking with my mask in place, _after_ wandering around the neighborhood for a bit, I opened the doors to my new home only to be confronted by Kakashi.

"You're three hours late and it's already nine o'clock. Where were you?" he glowered down at me.

I started sweating and played with my fingers nervously, "Uh... I got lost on my way here?" It was a half lie. The truth was I got lost on my way back then I _happened_ to stumble upon a dango shop and lost track of time.

When he didn't respond I gathered my courage and slowly looked up at him.

I flinched when he placed his hand on top of my head.

"You're just like your brother." Kakashi said, giving me a look of approval.

I just grinned back like an idiot at the compliment. Wait, was that even a compliment? Oh well, I'll just take that as a compliment.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note:**

**I'm sorry to all readers who are reading this chapter for the second time. I messed up when posting the chapters for this story and accidentally posted the original chapter three as chapter two, skipping the original chapter two in the process. So please, read chapter two because that one was newly updated as of October 15, 2012.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

Adjusting to another lifestyle so abruptly was harder than I thought.

First off, I needed to be extra careful of what I said around people.

Second, I couldn't act like 'Rin' or an Uchiha for that matter. Not that I acted like an 'Uchiha' or whatever people thought a stereotypical 'Uchiha' was. I had to act like 'Tora', Hatake Tora. Meaning that I had to mimic some of Kakashi's habit on a daily basis, which wasn't hard considering the fact that we both had the same time management issue.

Lastly, I still couldn't do the art of eating with a mask.

If you have ever seen Kakashi eating before, then you would understand what I meant.

Wait, I take that back. No one has ever seen him eating. Even _I_ still haven't seen him without his mask... yet.

For those individuals who are wondering... the food in front of Kakashi will magically disappear in a blink of an eye. Literally.

Like when Kakashi brought me to Ichiraku once to demonstrate how he ate in public. Let's just say that the hot noodles didn't have a chance.

Which was why I ate big breakfasts in the morning and skipped lunch on the days that I'm in the academy. Otherwise, I'll just eat lunch at home and have dango for snack or something.

Unfortunately today was not one of those days and so I was sitting at my desk idly looking outside of the window from my seat.

The school was a little ruffled after hearing about the massacre but they settled down after a few days. I was putting up an invisible barrier between the class so that no one would dare to approach me. It was better this way so they would be too scared to interrogate me even though it was sad that I couldn't talk to my friends.

The only worry that I had now was that Hyuuga prick with the byakugan. The Hyuuga however didn't question me just like everyone else. He either hasn't noticed at all or he found out but didn't bother to acknowledge the existence of someone like me.

My guess was the latter although I preferred the former much more.

"Tora-san? Tora-san? Hello~?"

A hand waved in front of my face and I turn my head to the voice. A girl with brown hair in two buns was looking at me.

"Hello! My name is Tenten!"

I gave her a bored look and gestured her to continue as to why she wanted my attention.

She fidgeted a little, "Uh, um... Canwebefriends?"

"Huh?"

She took a deep breath, "Can we be friends?"

I kept a relatively blank face. In reality I was confused as to why she would want to befriend me. People in the class were usually wary about me being a newcomer and all.

As if she read my thoughts the girl told me her reasons.

"You don't seem to be a fangirl like everyone else so I'd thought we'd get along. I'm not a fangirl either you see and the only other girl who wasn't one in our class was Rin but... I never got a chance to be friends with her."

_Oh._ I inwardly smiled at her answer.

She gave me a smile and I instantly accepted her request. I was practically dying because of loneliness from being deprived of social interaction from people of my age, other than Sasuke.

The girl by the name Tenten looked overjoyed. She wasn't in one of those cliques since the only girl clique in our class was the fangirl club, which of course neither of us were part of.

We sat in silence for a while during our lunch outdoors until the brunette spoke up.

"I'm glad that you're not a fangirl."

"Hm?" I gave her a questioning look.

"I mean, everybody follows Neji around like his shadow. I personally don't understand what's so good about him though, I mean he's so conceited!"

I nodded in agreement. Neji and I used to always argue who had the better doujutsu and he would seal off my chakra points so that I couldn't talk back.

"And what's with his hairstyle? He looks like a girl!" Tenten ranted.

When the image of Neji in girl clothing came up in my mind I had to stifle my laugh. She asked me what was wrong and when I told her about it, we bursting up laughing.

Suddenly a shadow falls upon us and when we look up to see the infamous Hyuuga glaring at us.

"Tell me about this 'girly prick' you were talking about." Neji growled.

Tenten started running away in the other direction but I held my ground not wanting to show weakness around a Hyuuga.

Neji took another step closer, "Tell me exactly _Hatake_ who you were talking about."

"I'm sure a _Hyuuga_ like you should know _exactly_ who we were talking about especially since you were spying us with your byakugan."

He clenched his fist, "I did not do that."

After few seconds he added, "I don't know what kind of game you're trying to play by fooling the whole school about your identity _Hatake_ but I never fell for it."

_So he did knew about my real identity._ And I was lucky no one was around to hear him spill my secret.

After studying him for a while and seeing that he wasn't going to leave without an answer, "I am not in the position to tell you anything Hyuuga but you better keep this matter to yourself and if you have a problem with that then go speak to the Hokage in person. This is no game and I know you are aware of what happened to my clan," I narrowed my eyes, "As far as anyone's concerned you and I have never met before and that is the end of it. Now leave me alone."

The Hyuuga stared at me for a couple of seconds before turning around to leave.

He paused midway and had his back faced towards me, "You are weak compared to your other clan mates. It is obvious that you are fated to live a false life, forever running away from whatever you are running away from."

My blood boiled at his comment and I threw a kunai in his direction which he sidestepped so it missed, "Don't talk like you know everything Hyuuga. I'm tired of hearing you preach everyday about other people's fate. You should be focused more on your own life instead."

A hand shot towards my face at incredible speed that I didn't have enough time to dodge. The damn Hyuuga sealed the chakra points around my face and neck, making me unable to talk.

"An average person like you shouldn't tell me what to do with my life." he said harshly and walked away without saying another word.

You can pretty much guess that I came home that night unable to talk.

Kakashi was already back sitting on the couch, reading his stupid orange book. Doesn't he have missions to do? He gets home before me practically everyday.

"You're late."

I didn't bother greeting him and went straight to my room, shutting the door a little bit louder than I intended. Since the annoying Hyuuga would always seal my chakra points every time we have an argument, which was quite often actually, I've memorized where they're located on me so that I can unseal them by myself.

Focusing chakra onto my fingers I began delicately unsealed the tenketsu one by one.

There was knocking on my door, "Hey, Rin? Is everything okay? Why didn't you say anything?" Kakashi asked.

I couldn't answer which lead to more knocking, "Did I upset you? What did I do wrong? Okay, I'm sorry that I ate your dango this morning but I can replace those! I promise!"

Once I've finished taking care of the last of the chakra points I flung the door open and nearly bumped into the silver-haired jounin.

"You're finally out. What's with your obsession with dango? What's so good about them anyways? I can guarantee you that Icha Icha's much more appetizing once you're mature enough."

I sweatdropped, "The Hyuuga in my class blocked my chakra points so I couldn't talk."

"Oh."

"But you still owe me my dangos."

"Damn."

I happily finished the last piece of dango at home before I headed towards the Uchiha compound where Sasuke still lived in my cat transformation. What didn't make sense to me was why he would stayed there. It held a lot painful memories for the both of us.

The gates to the compound were taped with yellow and black 'do not enter' signs all over it but I ignored them and ducked under to head towards the direction where I sensed my cousin's chakra—near the lake I saw him practice his katon before.

Quietly making my way towards Sasuke, I sat next to him after releasing the henge. He had that lifeless look on him again.

"I can see that something's on your mind. Spit it out." I said as I shifted a little so that my body was facing him.

A few minutes passed when he finally said, "Rin, I want to avenge our clan. I want to kill Itachi for what he did. I want to become stronger."

"What about the clan? You can't just let it die out! You have to revive it by getting yourself a bride and make babies."

The dead look on his face disappeared and a tinge of pink was dusted his cheeks instead which made my lips curl up in amusement.

"Why do I have to revive it? You can revive it instead. You're an Uchiha, right _Rin-rin_?" he argued back with a flustered look.

"Don't call me Rin-rin, Sasuke!" I whined. I knew he was just doing some payback for embarrassing him.

Then I rolled my eyes at our childishness, "Sasuke, you're the _clan leader_ for goodness sakes. It's your responsibility as the head of the clan to repopulate it."

"How about you? What about your responsibility for the clan?" he shot back.

I shrugged, "I don't know, help the clan leader find a suitable bride?"

"I don't think that's your responsibility. Isn't it something like to help the clan leader with all the work he has?"

"Which means...?"

"You'll have to find a husband and repopulate the clan too."

"..."

"..."

"This is just getting awkward."

"Hn."

"Ugh, stop it with the 'hn' thing!"

"Hn."

I sighed at his lack of vocabulary and turned back towards the lake.

"Sasuke, do you know why Itachi did what he did?" I hesitantly asked as I remembered the sad expression Itachi had after he stabbed me,

I soon regretted my decision to address the sensitive topic as Sasuke's face turned back into a grave one, "He said that he did it to test his power and that he let me live me only to see if I was capable of surpassing him."

My frown deepened. It all didn't add up—Itachi's expression, his words to Sasuke, watching him interact with Shisui before everything went downhill, then killing Shisui...

"I am an avenger and I am going to kill Itachi." Sasuke finished.

My throat tightened as the thought of Sasuke hunting down his brother crossed my mind. Someone was going to get hurt in the process.

I stared at my cousin's reflection on the lake, "Just... don't get yourself killed or leave. What is a clan without its leader?" I forced myself to smile and say the last part nonchalantly but failed.

It was a selfish request but I couldn't see myself surviving alone without family. Sasuke was the only person that I had left of my family.

He stared back at me through the reflection, "I'll promise not to leave you but you'll have to promise that you won't leave me too."

My frown morphed into a real smile this time, "I promise."


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

Nozomi woke up in her apartment, a little bit dazed as to why she wasn't in her usual room. Then the memories returned causing her to slump back into her bed and groan.

After a few minutes of sulking in her new emo corner, she opened up her scroll that kept her clothing and picked out a dark purple, long sleeve, v-neck shirt to wear over her fish net shirt with black shorts and over the knee shinobi sandals. She also wore a silver sash around her waist with the bow behind her back and her Konoha headband around her neck. Nozomi finally tied her holster around her leg after putting her scrolls away.

Then she took two senbons to make a bun, leaving her side bangs frame her face like Konan. Finally, she attached the white rose Konan gave to her onto her bun with chakra.

Nozomi looked over herself in the mirror. Her hairstyle was much like the blue-haired woman's, especially with the white paper rose on her head. She was, after all, like a mother to her and someone she looked up to whenever in trouble.

And probably the only female that she ever talked to. Akatsuki was, after all, mostly consist of guys.

* * *

Nozomi headed towards the training ground near the memorial stone. It took her longer than it should have because she kept on getting lost on the way but she managed to reach there a little bit before five.

She masked her chakra and hid in the trees. The last thing she wanted was an awkward confrontation with Team 7 and her ninja instincts told her to not trust people the first time you meet them. For a start, life as a mercenary isn't a safe one.

Nozomi watched Team 7 from a safe distance.

Haruno Sakura was the one that killed Sasori, but looking at her child form she looked weak compared to the medic nin she was to become. Sasori wasn't really that close to her but looking at his murderer-to-be was a little unnerving. The pink-haired girl was flirting with the dark-haired boy next to her and was miserably failing.

Uzumaki Naruto was the Jinchuuriki that Akatsuki always on fails on capturing every single time but it wasn't like she was going to capture him now because he's an important ally to her if she wanted to defeat Tobi. He was glaring daggers at the other boy and tried to talk to Sakura but she knocked him out cold.

And then there's that stoic boy that killed Itachi. Just looking at him made her disgusted. She personally didn't like him out of all of Team Seven for being a hypocrite. First he wants to take revenge on Itachi and then he wants to avenge Itachi, he even spoils what Itachi sacrificed his life for by attacking Konoha! She'll never understand him.

That chicken-butt boy made Nozomi want to punch him in the face really bad and wipe that stupid smirk out of his face.

Then the words Konan spoke to her replayed in her head.

_'Try to stop Itachi's brother from leaving too, okay? I am sure Itachi would appreciate it as well.'_

Nozomi sighed. She made herself promise not to hurt the boy no matter how tempting it looked, unless he crosses the line first, of course.

_Just for Itachi because I am in his debt and because his precious little brother would be better off on my side than on Tobi's no matter how much I hate him._ She decided.

After waiting for three hours for both Kakashi and Obito to arrive, Nozomi was about to go look for them herself when she saw the two walk slowly towards the training ground.

"Yo, today I was late because I was helping my friend Obito here-"

"LIAR!" Naruto and Sakura yelled at him.

Obito chuckled at the nostalgic scene before him.

"Okay, okay," Kakashi put his hands up in surrender, one of his hands holding his trademark orange book.

He put his book away and began talking to his team.

"Nozomi, I know you're hiding somewhere around here."

Nozomi froze. _Damn, he found me.  
_

She jumped off from her hiding spot to join the rest of the group. Team Seven looked at her in surprise.

"How long have you been there?" Kakashi asked.

"I don't know, what time did you ask me to come here?" she asked sarcastically.

Obito snickered but Kakashi gave him a pointed look which made him stop immediately.

"Anyways, Obito and Nozomi here are going to join our team starting today,"he pointed at his students, "This is Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Uzumaki Naruto."

Then he turned his head towards us, "Now tell us your likes, dislikes, dreams you have, and hobbies."

He signaled her to start first.

"My name is Nozomi. I like origami paper, I don't like when people underestimate me and people who wears masks," _especially orange masks_, "my dream is none of your business, and my hobbies are folding origami and training."

Everyone minus Kakashi and Sasuke laughed at the mask part. Sasuke just 'Hn'-ed.

Then it was Obito's turn so he cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.

"My name is Uchiha Obito. I like taking my time, I don't like stuck-up people in general, my dream is to master the sharingan, and my hobbies are sleeping and relaxing."

Naruto and Nozomi eyed the chicken-butt-haired boy when 'stuck-up people' were mentioned.

On the other hand, Sasuke's eyes went wide when Obito claimed that he was an Uchiha. His eyes flashed and he grabbed Obito's collar.

"Who the hell are you claiming yourself as an Uchiha? The only Uchiha I know is Itachi and I. He killed everyone in the massacre so don't throw around the Uchiha name like you are one."

"What was that brat?" Obito spat as he activated his sharingan.

Sasuke flinched and let go of the older Uchiha's.

The masked jounin began explaining the situation to his team because it seemed like they didn't hear the news.

"Sasuke, Obito was my teammate during the Third Shinobi War. He was the one who gave me the sharingan and a 'natural phenomena' brought him here."

It mildly amused Nozomi when she saw the look on Sasuke's face. Who knew that Itachi's brother can show more emotion than a rock?

"Uh, now that the introductions are over, let's spar to see how good you two are. I'll fight Obito first so he can learn how to fight with one eye and then Sasuke you can fight Nozomi," Nozomi grumbled, "Naruto and Sakura, you'll watch the fight. We'll begin now."

Why did she have to fight the stoic boy? It would only provoke her and try to attack him more than necessary. Besides, for the past few months she's only been training by sparring Tobi and Nagato which meant not quite, but almost death-like battles. Not that his death would matter to her or anything.

Sighing, she walked towards the trees and hopped onto a branch that gave her a clear view of the training field. Then she watched as both men took their stance.

Obito attacked first using taijutsu at Kakashi but his movement was a little off due to the fact that he was only using an eye. The copy ninja blocked the teen's attacks very easily which irked the boy, causing him to activate his bloodline limit.

His attacks got better when he used the sharingan but the punches and kicks were still not as effective. Plus there was that ten years worth of experience that Kakashi had which made it harder for Obito to even land a single hit.

Several minutes later, Obito lost from disorientation and exhaustion that came both from having to use only one eye. Kakashi gave him a few tips while he recovered.

Nozomi took this as a cue to jump out of her tree and landed silently next to them. Kakashi looked at her.

"You know people with bloodline limits tend to rely on them a lot... So are you okay battling without it?"

Nozomi glared.

"Who told you that I couldn't do anything without my doujutsu? I had a lot of senseis so far and they taught me how to fight without using my bloodline limit. Don't _ever_ underestimate me."

She walked to the middle of the clearing to see that her opponent was already waiting for her.

"What took you so long? You're wasting my time girl. Hurry up." The raven haired boy sneered.

Nozomi growled at the Uchiha. Trying not to strangle him on his rude remark was a lot more challenging than she expected.

"You're going to regret what you just said Uchiha." she said in a low tone.

They both took their stance.

The battle started in a matter of seconds as Sasuke started throwing a few kunais at her which Nozomi deflected with her own kunai.

Then she ran at him, dodging the combinations of kicks and punches that he sent towards her.

When Nozomi saw an opening she kicked him in the stomach, hard enough to make him fly a few meters back. Of course, if she had the option she would've been happily to kick him out of the Fire Country but Itachi would difinitely kill her in her sleep if she did that.

Gasps were heard from Naruto and Sakura after seeing their strongest member get hit by someone their age.

The Uchiha stood up with fury in his eyes. Nozomi just smirked at his new determination that he lacked a few moments ago.

"You're going to pay for that," the Uchiha snarled.

"Make me, ice cube."

That probably dropped the air around Sasuke by ten degrees from a dangerous aura that was being emitted around him. Hence the dub, ice cube.

Kakashi started sweating a little. _This isn't going to end well..._

In a flash, Sasuke began doing the hand signs.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!"

A big fireball came towards Nozomi. She grinned and began doing her hand signs rapidly too.

"Suiton: Mizurappa"

A jet of water burst out of her mouth and extinguished the fireball and soaked the egotistical boy as a bonus.

He was in a bad mood already and it just got worse tenfold which the girl only smirked at.

Nozomi was secretly having so much fun irking the usually stoic Uchiha that she decided to throw in one of her favorite techniques at him.

A sly smile made its way on her face, "Dance of Shikigami!

Paper started to peel off of her until hundreds of sheets of them were scattered in the air in the training field with Nozomi's upper half of her body hovering above ground, much like how Konan performed the jutsu.

The audience was silent as they watched in awe.

Sasuke did his fireball jutsu again but the paper didn't burn because Nozomi dampened it while she was using her water jutsu earlier.

He threw shurikens at her floating form but her body dispersed into more paper.

Everyone was looking for her in the mass of paper suspended above the ground. Suddenly Nozomi materialized herself behind the onyx-eyed boy with a kunai pressing against his throat. The kunoichi smirked at her victory while the boy growled with frustration.

"Let's end the fight at that." the jounin said, not even wanting to image what would happen if he let them go at each other.

Nozomi released the kunai on Sasuke's throat and the scattered papers flew back to her, making her body go back to normal.

"No. We're going to continue the fight." the angry boy gritted out.

"And I refuse." Nozomi answered smoothly making the said boy bristle up more.

"Why? Are you scared of me?" Sasuke challenged.

The kunoichi sighed and closed her eyes, "You're so... annoying." Ah, the word that Uchihas tend to throw around a lot.

Sasuke clenched his fist, "But I have to become stronger. I have to avenge my clan by killing that man."

"And I could care less." she coldly replied.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her but said no more.

The raven-haired girl then turned to Kakashi as well, "I told you not underestimate me," she addressed to both of them, "I hate it when people underestimate me."

Kakashi scratched the back of his head while Sasuke crossed his arms and gave her the cold shoulder. She sighed, _men and their huge pride._

* * *

As Obito walked through the village he couldn't help but notice how much it changed since he... died. Some of the shinobis he passed by looked familiar and their faces when they saw him looked like they've seen a ghost or something.

But what was most intriguing was the girl that saved, er, _revived_ him. Her father, Uchiha Shinji, went missing during the third shinobi war if he remembered correctly. At the time the clan was losing a good amount of its members from the war so it wasn't surprising if one of the clan's members disappeared suddenly.

When he first got a look at Team Seven he was surprised to see the Uzumaki and the Uchiha. The goggled teen was able to tell right off the bat that the blonde was his teacher's and Kushina's child from the resemblance and the surname of the boy. The Uchiha was a bit harder but if you look closely you can see that his face looked like Mikoto's and Kakashi also filled him in on the details of the massacre and what Itachi did. It came to him as a shock at first when he heard that his baby cousin slaughtered the whole clan and Obito planned on investigating the whole thing further.

The blonde boy came up to Nozomi, "Hey, hey! You were so cool beating teme! I know this great place called Ichiraku and they sell the best ramen there. Do you want to join?"

The onyx-eyed girl stared at him in a calculating way but it went away quickly and was replaced with a friendly expression, "Sorry Naruto-san, I have to go see the Hokage right now."

Naruto slump a little but he recovered in a flash with a very bright smile, "Oh, okay," he turned to Obito, "How about you?"

Taken by surprise the Uchiha scratched the side of his face in embarrassment, "Sorry Naruto, I have to also go to the Hokage too."

"That's too bad, oh well. See ya guys tomorrow then!" the orange-clad ninja waved and disappeared into the crowd of civilians.

Nozomi quirked an eyebrow at him, "You have to go to the Hokage too?" she asked.

"Yeah, I want to talk to the Hokage so I can ask permission to enter the Uchiha compound," he explained.

"Can I come to the compound too if he lets you?"

"Sure."

"Thanks."

* * *

The Hokage finished looking at her memory with the help of Inoichi-san and also gave permission for Obito and Nozomi to visit the compound.

Nozomi walked through the gates and old memories from her early childhood resurfaced. With Obito trailing behind her, her legs moved on their own until she was in front of a house with 'Uchiha Shinji and Kanae' written in the front.

She was finally home.


End file.
